The current outbreak of Ebola (virus shown above) is one of the largest in history and the first in West Africa.
Washington — The United States will support the African Union’s (AU) urgent deployment of trained and equipped medical workers to West Africa — the single largest injection of critical personnel to the region — to help combat the Ebola outbreak, the U.S. Agency for International Development announced September 9.
With this contribution of $10 million, the United States has spent more than $100 million responding to the Ebola outbreak. The funding complements USAID’s September 2 announcement of plans to make available up to $75 million in additional funding to combat the deadly disease.
The United States is committed to working with the international community to help bring this outbreak under control as soon as possible and welcomes the AU’s leadership to mobilize the African response to the crisis, USAID said.
The latest funding provided by the United States will be used to transport approximately 100 health workers to Liberia, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The contingent includes 25 doctors, 45 nurses and other essential personnel to manage and run Ebola treatment units that isolate and treat those affected by the disease, helping minimize the spread of Ebola.
“The U.S. is committed to supporting the African Union’s response to the urgent needs across West Africa as a result of this vicious disease. We can and will stop this epidemic, but it will take a coordinated effort by the entire global community,” said USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah.
The U.N. World Health Organization and various nongovernmental organizations working in the region continue to emphasize the need for well-trained health care workers to respond to the Ebola outbreak, which is the largest and most devastating in history. Critical care workers — nurses, doctors and physicians assistants — can join this historic response by registering at www.usaid.gov/ebola.
This U.S. contribution, in addition to transporting and sustaining the AU medical workers deployed across West Africa, will provide them with the emergency supplies and health equipment needed to respond.
Concurrently, USAID is providing resources for 1,000 new beds, 130,000 sets of personal protective equipment and 50,000 hygiene kits.
Because a global and coordinated effort is required to combat the outbreak, the United States remains committed to working with the AU, the governments of West Africa and the international community to stop the spread of Ebola and save lives, according to USAID.
The need for a global response to the outbreak was underscored in a September 3 press conference conducted in Washington by World Health Organization (WHO) officials.
Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of WHO, said the Ebola outbreak is “the largest, most complex and most severe we’ve ever seen” and is racing ahead of control efforts. Implementing the new WHO road map to coordinate and scale up international response will help the affected countries stop ongoing transmission, she said.
Dr. David Nabarro, U.N. coordinator for the Ebola response, said the United Nations system is working together on 12 detailed steps for the global response, which he estimated will cost at least $600 million and require “several thousand people to scale up our response by three to four times.”
The countries affected by the current outbreak of Ebola virus disease — Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone — have reported about 3,500 cases and 1,900 deaths, Chan said.
A separate outbreak has been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but virological analysis has shown no link between that event and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
courtesy:IIP Digital
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